As with Ruffles Spray, our thought process was to look at how much money we would be prepared to spend on a New Narrowboat. With Spray, it was a simple decision; back in 1995, we did not have £300,000 to buy a new sailing yacht; however, new narrowboats are around £140,000, so the discussion started and quickly moved on from new to having the hull built and fitting it out ourselves.
Over the next two weeks, I contacted ten narrowboat builders and got some prices. They all offered a sailaway option. This sailaway build could be to any level of finish. Cheshire Cruisers at Lymm Marina had an excellent website.
I love a company that is open and puts all their costs on their website so potential customers can get an idea of the cost. Why all do not do this is a mystery to me. In my view, this develops trust right from the beginning. Hiding your prices behind ‘call us for a quote’ is just not good enough anymore.
Now, before you say, “Every customer is different, every customer wants their boat to be different”. That also doesn’t make the cut anymore. If I am in the market for a narrowboat (or anything new), then I am at the research stage and investigative pricing everything up. At this stage I need facts not sales hype.
New Narrowboats Costs
We were looking at a 57 foot hull, this was priced at £46,000 on Cheshire Cruisers website, add spray foam insulation £2000 brought the price up to £48,000. The basic price included:
- New steel hull of customers choice
- Steel spec of 10-6-4-4 or higher
- New diesel engine fitted
- Twin 12 volt alternators for charging
- Engine starter battery fitted
- Windows and/or port holes fitted
- Rear doors & front doors
- One set of side doors
- Bilge pump fitted
- Diesel tank
- Gas bottle locker
- Ballasted with concrete block
- Floored with high quality plywood
- Craned onto the water at the boatyard
- Professional boat commission & handover
- Turn the key sail away
- Boat to comply RCR 2017
- Builder plate & UKCA marked
- Boat owners manual
In my opinion, this was a really good price, the £2000 for the spray foam insulation included:
- Roof & cabin sides battened
- Spray foamed insulated applied to a minimum of 25mm.
A longish conversation with Cheshire Boats to cross the t’s and dot the i’s sorted out the questions and queries. We made arrangements to visit the yard to check everything out and look at some hulls to get an idea of size.
New Narrowboat Fit Out Costs
My next task was to price the fitting out, which took two weeks. My calculations showed that the whole boat could be finished for an additional £22,000. That was within the budget we had set ourselves, albeit close to the upper limit.
Both Ann and I were getting a little excited; we went out for a celebration meal with some friends. One question Pete asked over the second pint was, “How long will the fitting out take, Mike?”
My reply was, “About 12 months.” The rest of the evening was spent discussing ideas for the fitout, boat names, and where we were going to moor the boat.
A week later, after discussing the fit-out in detail with Ann, I concluded that perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea after all. The sailaway hull would be completed by the end of May 2025. Then, it would be transported by road to Droitwich Spa Marina for fitting out. The launch date would be June 2026.
I asked myself, do I really want to put all my energy into fitting out another boat at 63? I thought I could do it, but could I really? All that crawling around in tight spaces, all that sawdust, all that mess.
I thought I could, but I would spend ten hours a day four days a week fitting this boat out. Reluctantly, I realised this was probably not a good idea.
I called Cheshire Boats and informed them of my decision. They understood and said to give them a call if I changed my mind.
Ann then proposed that we buy a second-hand narrowboat. We set the budget at £45,000, which would allow us to upgrade the electric system and do any other necessary things.
We started looking at boats on many brokers’ websites. I compiled a shortlist of ten. We called the top one to view the boat. Of course, we could come on up, the broker said.
In this instance, it meant very much north of Bristol; all the brokers seemed to be in Warwickshire or Cheshire. We loaded the motorhome with our gear and set off on a week-long tour of the UK to examine all these boats.
Read my next blog post to find out how this went.
